Quetzal Adventures

Hello,

Welcome to my blog. I'm a naturalist living in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. I'd like to share these stories with you. I hope you enjoy them. The natural world has always something new and exciting to offer.

Juan-Carlos Solis

Subscribe to my Blog

Swainson’s Hawks are back in California. I just encountered a mating pair in the city of Brentwood right next to the field where a few pairs of Burrowing Owls are nesting (see previous post on 4/7/15). It’s a treat to see these majestic raptors come back every year considering they just flew roughly 10,000 Km all the way from South America (most likely Argentina).

Not surprisingly, I found them on a large vacant lot where hay has just been cleared, and therefore, blown the cover for a colony of at least 2,000 ground squirrels. Swainson’s have adapted to live around people (here and in Argentina) and often follow farm and field disturbance activities to make the most of their hunting efforts. In this case, an unlimited supply of ground squirrels with no vegetation to hide from aerial survei...

One of the joys of being a naturalist is finding the unexpected. That just happened to me as I was driving around Brentwood, CA and saw a pair of burrowing owls. It is a reminder of how adaptable and at the same time fragile is the wildlife that live in and around our sprawling urban areas.

The owls were standing on the sidewalk next to their burrow at the edge of a vacant lot. In the absence of enough grasslands and other natural habitats, disturbed areas and vacant lots have become prime habitat for burrowing owls.

Burrowing owls in California chose sites with available burrows often made by ground squirrels.

The pair was not alone, I counted a total of at least 4 pairs as I scanned the area. The unexpected today is not only that I found burrowing owls, but a smal...